Stonyhurst College, Clitheroe *

Client: The Trustees of Stonyhurst College

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Stonyhurst College, situated a few miles from Clitheroe in Lancashire, is a private college and was originally founded in St Omer, France in 1593 to provide a Catholic education for English families. In the aftermath of the French Revolution the Jesuits made their final move in 1794 when they settled on the Stonyhurst estate given to them by a former St Omer pupil - Thomas Weld. It is one of the largest buildings under one roof in Europe and is Grade1 listed by English Heritage for its architecture, history and setting.

The college had suffered for many years with problems to the building fabric including failing roofs, crumbling and eroding stonework and leaking windows. The client requested that a comprehensive condition survey be undertaken and recommendations provided for repairs to the historic west front. A Conservation Management Plan was also commissioned to indentify significant and vulnerable aspects of the buildings and estate and to identify areas that could be repaired, altered and developed. Inspections were also undertaken and schedules were provided for repair works to St Peter's Church and for the Shirk Building.

The major programme of repair work included re-building the whole of the library west bay, re-roofing the 16th century gatehouse, extensive stonework replacement and rebuilding, window repairs to the gatehouse, removal of dry rot to the main gatehouse tower structure and replacement of the stone eagle statues to the dome tops and extensive re-pointing. All of this work was undertaken whilst the college was in normal use by staff and students.

* For details regarding the commissioning of this project, please refer to about us